How to set up a timeout function in VB.NET

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Hi,

I have a code that sometimes stuck in very long process, sadly it is one of my most needed .dll so I cannot get rid of it altogether.
Let's call it unreliableLongProcess()

What I want is to set a timeout for that process, so if it is taking more than 10 minutes (or any other set timeout), I would like it to give up so it does not hinder the rest of codes to run. How do I do this?

My thought it would be something like this :

Dim stopwatch As Stopwatch = New Stopwatch()
stopwatch.Start()
While stopwatch.ElapsedMilliseconds < 10000
     unreliableLongProcess()
End While

How should I do this?
Any helps will be much appreciated, thank you.

What I have tried:

Dim stopwatch As Stopwatch = New Stopwatch()
stopwatch.Start()
While stopwatch.ElapsedMilliseconds < 10000
     unreliableLongProcess()
End While

Posted 6-Jul-20 14:28pm

ekograce

Updated 6-Jul-20 17:47pm

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Dave Kreskowiak · Accepted Answer · 2020-07-06T14:44:00

Solution 1

The easiest way to do this would be to move your long running code to a Task.

A CancelationTokenSource already has an implementation for CancelAfter(milliseconds), so this is pretty easy to do.

Cancel Async Tasks after a Period of Time (C#) | Microsoft Docs[^]

Posted 6-Jul-20 14:44pm

Dave Kreskowiak

Garth J Lancaster · Accepted Answer · 2020-07-06T17:47:00

Following from Dave's suggestion, I 'think' (*tm, I'm not a VB.Net Programmer) you could do something like

' Declare a System.Threading.CancellationTokenSource.
Dim cts As CancellationTokenSource

Private Async Sub unreliableLongProcess() as Task()

  ' Instantiate the CancellationTokenSource.
  cts = New CancellationTokenSource()

  Dim token as cts.Token
  Try
    ' Set up the CancellationTokenSource to cancel after 10 * 60 * 1000 = 10 minutes. 
    cts.CancelAfter(10*60*1000)

    ' ? is this Await redundant ?
    Await Task.Run(Sub()
      '
      ' Do slow processing here
      ' 
      token.ThrowIfCancellationRequested()
    End Sub, token)

    ' Log/Display Process is Complete

    Catch ex As OperationCanceledException
    ' Log/Display Process Canceled/Timed Out

    Catch ex As Exception
    ' Log/Display Some Other Exception Occurred
  End Try

  ' Set the CancellationTokenSource to Nothing when the process is complete.
  cts = Nothing
End Sub

And use it as in

Await unreliableLongProcess()

(I was thinking about Async, Await etc in C# before Dave answered)